Questions and Lager
by Romana Dante
Summary: [Torchwood] Obsessed with trying to figure out Jack, Gwen takes her despair to a pub in Cardiff, and accidentally manages to get herself drunk...just when a strange man in a brown coat comes to find her. Rated T for some swearing and obvious drinking.


Gwen sat depressed and probably slightly drunk at a pub in downtown Cardiff. She had always liked a drink, but getting drunk was something else. It had never really appealed to her, being tipsy and stupid and waking up the next morning with a pounding headache worse then death itself. Not that she knew what death itself was like. Like getting drunk, death itself was something she tended to avoid, though it was gradually getting harder and harder to do. If only she had the same opinion on death as her boss.

_He wants to die,_ she thought to herself, sighing as she sipped her drink, _He wants desperately to die…but can't. _

Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen's boss. A man who couldn't die, had been around since the early 1900's, and whose appearance hadn't changed a bit. This was the man she was working for, an enigma wrapped in a mystery and covered in seclusion. Everyday she watched as he walked furiously through the hub, locked himself in his office, and didn't emerge until some alien intelligence was detected at the Millennium Center or something. The man was so clearly hiding something that it had made Gwen furious until the day she saw his eyes.

Sadness. That was all there was to them. It wasn't incredible, overpowering sadness that people describe in romance novels or anything it was just…empty. It was like he was hollow inside and Gwen took this to mean that he was actually incredibly sad. Something _had_ happened to him at some point and it was clearly still haunting him today. She occasionally got glimpses of what it was, a hint about how he had died and come back, a brief mention of what he wanted in life, a look into his romantic past. It had been that last one that had brought Gwen to the pub in the first place.

Estelle Cole. That had been her name. Jack had fallen in love with her, back in 1941 apparently. It had been strange enough to think that the young looking Jack Harkness had been around that long, even if he was immortal. Then came the image of him holding the dying Estelle in his arms. She had never seen him have that strong a reaction to anything before. It had been almost too much for her to take, but she had pressed on anyway, constantly asking questions about himself and his dispair. She wished she had given him a bit longer to mourn before bombarding him with questions, but she was too curious. That seemed to be all she was lately, curious.

And then he had gone and done something terrible. He had left a poor little girl at the mercy of the very creatures that had killed the woman he loved. He had claimed it was "to save the world" but Gwen wasn't buying it. There she had almost gotten to accept him and the mystery that he was, and he went and did that. He had seemed so human for a while, more human then she had ever seen him act, and then he went alien again. He became alien, and she became curious. Both back to where they were before.

She sighed as she sipped the drink in front of her. She couldn't remember which drink she was on, let alone what she was drinking. For some reason, the mystique of her new boss concerned her, scared her, depressed her enough to get drunk. She _had_ to figure him out somehow; the mystery was practically killing her.

A man in a long brown trench coat walked into the bar and ordered a drink. He winked at the woman at the bar and then started walking towards Gwen's table. Not particularly sober, Gwen hadn't really noticed him until he stood next to the empty seat of her booth. He smiled, "PC Gwen Cooper, I presume?"

"That'll be me," she said sighing.

"Great." He sat down in the seat across from her, putting his drink against hers. A few drinks ago, Gwen would have protested having a random stranger suddenly sit at her seat with her. Now she was almost glad for the company. "So, Gwen Cooper?"

"Yes?"

"Are you affiliated with a man named 'Captain Jack Harkness?" the man smiled in a way that reminded her of Jack. She wondered if maybe they were friends.

"Yes," Gwen answered finally, "Jack is my boss. Do you know him?"

"You could say that," said the man, grinning even more wildly this time. She could see why Jack must of liked him.

"I can't tell you where he is," said Gwen, remembering through the drunken haze to be confidential, "but I can get him over here to talk if you want."

"No!" the man suddenly became panicked, "No, he can't see me until the time is right. I'm here to talk to you, not him."

"Why can't he see you?"

"The time's not right, didn't you hear me the first time?"

"Well yeah, but…"

"Never mind, just…" the man seemed frustrated, "you're drunk, aren't you?"

"I suppose I am," said Gwen laughing, "I've never been drunk before…is it fun?"

"No, it's not." The man replied, "Damn, and I only have one chance at this. Oh well, suppose telling a drunk you to keep your nose out of other people's business is better then not telling you at all, don't you think?"

"Yeah…sure." Gwen's vision began to blur as the ability to think coherent thoughts slowly left her. The man sitting across from her had a serious expression on his face, that in her drunken state made her want to laugh. Her smile faded when the man pulled out a picture of Jack, the reason she was here in the first place.

"This is the Jack Harkness we're talking about, am I right?" the man asked.

"Yes," said Gwen, sighing, "That's him, my mysterious boss…that's a good name for him 'my mysterious boss'…if I didn't have to be so secretive I'd go home and tell that to Ryes!" Gwen laughed, and the man rolled his eyes. She wondered what his problem was, that joke had been hysterical!

"Yes, well, his mystery needs to be kept, Gwen Cooper, you can't go around looking for answers anymore, have you got that?"

"No." Gwen said honestly, "What do you mean?"

"I mean you need to stop digging through his life!" the man began speaking with an intensity that again reminded Gwen of Jack, "There are thinks about Jack Harkness that no one in this time and place should know about, things that if they did find out about could have horrible consequences! You can't find out anymore then you have, Gwen Cooper, you know enough already."

"And what right have you got to be telling me this?" Gwen drunkenly demanded, "Some random…person strolling in here and ordering me about! I can do whatever I want, thank you!"

"This is extremely important!" the man insisted, giving her a look that would make most sober people want to shrivel up and die on the spot.

"I bet it is!" Gwen answered, after taking another swig of her drink, "I bet you're going to tell me that if I keep looking up Jack and questioning him all the time that world's going to end or the weevils will all get loose or the pub will run out of lager!"

"It has nothing to do with the world or weevils or especially lager," the man continued, "There are just certain things about Jack that neither you nor anyone else can ever know, it's for his welfare and your own! Do you ever wonder why he gets so moody when you ask him things, it's not because he doesn't want to tell you, it's because he _can't _tell you! Anything you uncover could be incredibly dangerous and you need to stop!" The man took a dramatic swig of his drink after finishing speaking and continued to stare intently at Gwen. Despite the drunkenness, she was by now quite frightened of the man. Even in her current state of mind she could see there was something about him that she didn't want to mess with.

"So no more questions?" she asked, sounding more intelligent then she had all evening, "Not a single one?"

"Not a single one," the man replied, "well, I take that back. You can ask simple questions like 'why did you let that little girl go Jack?' which is a question I want answered myself. You just can't ask him things like 'where were you born' or 'why is that hand on your desk so important to you?' things like that."

"Oh," was all Gwen could manage, "I see…I think."

"You don't need to see," the man replied gently, "You just need to move on and stop trying to figure Jack out, in the long run it will probably turn out better for you anyway. Obsessively trying to figure someone out is never healthy, and with your sort of job you need all the sanity you can get." He smiled, and Gwen had to fight hard to not smile back. Even while she was stone drunk, the man's smile was infectious.

"So I should just…"

"Relax," the man finished for her, "just relax. Taking some painkiller or something might not be too bad either, did you really drink all that lager?"

"I might have," said Gwen, "I'm not too sure of anything at the moment…"

"Right," said the man, "Then this would be a good time for me to leave. It was nice meeting you Gwen Cooper, I'm sure you'll continue to be a brilliant PC."

"Thank you," Gwen replied, shaking the man's hand as he stood up.

"Just remember," the man said before leaving, "Relax, Jack's not dangerous, he just has a lot of secrets that need to be kept. Don't go looking into him and you won't go crazy before getting a chance to find out anything."

"Will I ever know anything?"

"Maybe someday," the man replied enigmatically, "probably someday. But for now, just relax and don't worry about it." He smiled again, and this time Gwen relented and returned it. He turned to leave, but Gwen stopped him.

"What was your name?" she asked. The man sighed and looked longingly at the door, clearly wanting to leave.

"I'm the Doctor," he said simply, "And you can't tell Jack that you met me, he can't know I was here, alright?"

"Alright."

"Good, now goodbye Gwen Cooper, perhaps I'll see you again someday." He turned and finally managed to exit the pub, leaving Gwen alone in her booth. She was still smiling from when the Doctor had spoken to her, though that might have been the alcohol. She sighed as she tried to piece everything he had said together in her mind.

"I hate being drunk."


End file.
